


Red

by MalevolentMagpie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Little Red Riding Hood Fusion, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Endings, Fairy Tale Retellings, Fairy Tale Style, M/M, Monsters, Red Riding Hood Keith, References to human sacrifice, Witches, Woodcutter Shiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:06:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29396685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalevolentMagpie/pseuds/MalevolentMagpie
Summary: A version of the tale of Red Riding Hood that incorporates elements from the many different versions of it and of related tales that have existed throughout history.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 33
Collections: Sheithlentines 2021





	Red

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyDestineeZara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDestineeZara/gifts).



> Happy Sheithlentines to [LadyDestineeZara](/users/LadyDestineeZara/), who requested a Little Red Riding Hood AU with “a little something different” than the usual take, and bonus points for Woodcutter Shiro. I tried to get creative and draw from the old tales. Hope you like it!
> 
> (Rated M for allusions to the darker parts of history and fairy tales; does not contain smut.)

Once upon a time, in an old and wild land, there lay a tiny village on the edge of an old and wild forest. Everyone in the sleepy little village knew of the dark spirit that roamed the woods. The spirit was one of those evils in life with which one must live or else perish fighting, the village elders all said. Entering the woods was perilous, but it was necessary in order to cut down the trees for their fires and their homes, hunt the beasts and gather the wild herbs for their tables, and travel to other villages to trade their wares. 

Some said the spirit took on the form of a great wolf, ravening and spitting-mad. Others, that it appeared as a hulking, amorphous shadow, ominous and dripping steaming tar in its trail. The only thing that was known for certain was that it avoided the deep river that ran through the forest and down to the town. Perhaps the river was holy, the elders said. Perhaps the spirit merely feared running water, as all dark things do, the villagers theorized. Either way, the river was the sole source of safety in the woods, and to wander from it was to invite a horrible death.

Yes, everyone in the sleepy little village knew of the dark spirit that roamed the woods, but none so well as the sole known survivor of its hunger. 

Little Keith was easily recognized wherever he went in the village by the distinctive red hood he always wore. A gift from his grandmother, it was an unusually vibrant red color and at his young age almost trailed on the floor. He was quite close with his grandmother, too young then to understand why she had been exiled to live alone in her little cottage in the woods. In his innocence, he set out on his own one day to visit her house, and that was when the spirit had found him.

As Keith retold later, it appeared to him in a form much like that of the noble wolves that made their den nearby. When it found out that Keith was headed to visit his grandmother, it asked him for the cottage’s location and Keith naively gave it. By the time that Keith himself made it to his grandmother’s cottage, it was too late. His grandmother’s body greeted him with a smile and bid him enter the house, but Keith could see there was something unnatural about the being before him. Though the features were objectively a perfect match to his grandmother’s, Keith had the distinct impression that something didn’t fit. A feeling as though the eyes were too big or the teeth too sharp. 

He screamed and ran, and the thing gave chase. It was pure luck that saved him then, as a brave group of woodcutters had been working nearby and one of their number ran towards the sound of Keith’s cry. So it was that Keith met young Shiro, whose axe felled the creature and saved Keith’s life. The dark spirit fled its shell, to haunt the woods another day.

Keith was the first villager to have been targeted by the spirit and lived to tell the tale, and ever since then the spirit had grown insatiable in its bloodlust. Where before it had only dared to capture the occasional hapless wanderer, it now killed boldly, closer and closer to the village limits. In an attempt to appease it, the village began thereon to bow in deference to the spirit and annually sacrifice a virginal youth to be taken by the spirit and then consumed. The year Keith came of age was the year he lost his parents. Without the protection offered to him by childhood and family, all the village’s eyes turned to him. It was only fitting, they said, that he who was the cause of their present suffering should pay the heavy toll. 

So his betrothed Shiro took him and claimed him, and, thus wed, Keith was made safe once more. Keith flourished, and grew strong, and grew sharp, and grew wise. And one day, he reached his full adult height, and he stepped out from his and Shiro’s house and into the town square.

The square was decorated as though for a festival, but no one was laughing or making merry. On a raised wooden platform in the center of the square stood the town leaders and a young woman with short, unruly chestnut hair dressed in a simple white shift. Keith walked among the villagers in his bright red hood -now that he was grown, it fit him more like a riding hood than a cloak- and they parted as they noticed him pass. Around him, he heard the usual snippets of conversation.

“-in that indecent cowl, as always-”

“-shameless-”

“-just like his grandmother-”

At that, Keith turned to the last speaker. “Say what you will about me, but I won’t stand for anyone speaking ill of my family.”

The villager raised their chin defiantly. “Your grandmother was a witch, and if it hadn’t been for your fool husband stooping so low as to bed you, it would be you on that platform. It should be.”

“You  _ dare _ speak my husband’s name when he is twice the man you could ever hope to be.” Keith spat on the ground. He felt a strong, warm hand land on his shoulder.

“Keith’s grandmother was a woman with strength, and as such she had power. For that she was feared and cast out. That makes her a witch, in your eyes. Perhaps we would fare better beseeching the help of witches instead of sacrificing innocents to a beast,” Shiro said with a polite smile.

Keith leaned into his warmth, and felt his beloved’s arm instantly wrap protectively around his shoulders.

On the wooden platform, one of the town elders cleared their throat. The crowd quieted and stilled. Slipping between them, Keith made his way forward.

“With heavy hearts, we send this youth to you, great Spirit of the Forest. In your mercy-”

Keith stepped onto the platform. Gasps rippled through the audience in the square. 

“The dark spirit has no mercy,” Keith called out. His voice was deep now, and strong. It carried clearly through the air to every corner of the square. “We should not worship out of fear. We should not worship something that does not deserve it.”

“Easy for you to say, Little Keith,” said one of the elders behind him. “We are not all so blessed, to survive the impossible.”

Keith ignored him. “Release this girl. I will go in her stead.”

The gathered villagers broke out in a rumble of whispers. The elder that had spoken looked taken aback. He gazed upon Keith with uncertainty. 

“This… is not the way it is done. You are no longer a fit candidate; the Shirogane boy has sullied you.”

“For years you have wanted to surrender me to the spirit. Or else wished that I might otherwise be disposed of,” he continued addressing himself to the people. “I give you now your chance. If this bloodshed has been born of my escape from the spirit and its rage, my taken status does not matter. It will come for me anyway.”

He could practically see in the crowd the shift of opinion. It was one of the known truths in the village that Keith was the cause of their misery. The spirit’s sole failed hunt had exacerbated its violence and strength. Now it would have its prized meal. It was only fitting. 

“You seek to die so eagerly,” said another of the elders. 

Keith grinned. “I am the only one among us that has survived the spirit once. I stand the greatest chance against it.”

“And he will not be alone,” said Shiro, shouldering his trusted axe as he, too, stepped onto the platform.

“Very well.” The first elder nodded slowly, and the young woman in the shift was released into the relieved arms of her family. 

Keith and Shiro walked towards the edge of the wood. There, Keith pulled the bright red hood over his head and walked forward alone, a woven basket swinging from his arm. Shiro waited some time and then followed at a distance, using the brush and the trees to hide his presence. Deep they went into the woods, and deeper, until the village buildings were out of sight and mind. 

When the light that filtered through the canopy grew pale and cold, Keith felt it. A shadow that hunted his steps. 

“I know you…” A voice like thick gravel echoed around him. “I would recognize you anywhere. Little Red Riding Hood…”

Keith whipped around. “It seems I made an impression.”

Before him stood a shadow like a great beast, wolf-like in appearance but walking on two strong, clawed legs. Its eyes seemed to glow and shimmer a bright, bright red. “This time you won’t get away.”

Keith threw his hands up in surrender, shrugging with casual ease. “I know. I have come to make you a deal, spirit. My body and life in exchange for the safety of the village.”

The spirit’s bright eyes twinkled as they had when he had deceived Keith as a child. “Of course, Little Red,” he grinned toothily as he slowly raked his gaze down Keith’s grown body. “A fair bargain. I give you my word that after I eat you I shall leave your small village in peace forever more.”

“Then we have an understanding. It would be better to fulfill it on a nice, warm bed, though. And I would very much like to see my dear grandmother’s cottage one last time.”

The beast nodded eagerly. “As you wish, little one,” it said even as it towered above Keith with menacing intent. 

Keith waved for it to lead the way to the little house in the woods, and followed obediently after it. His grandmother’s house was not far from where they were, and in no time at all Keith cast eyes once more on the walls of the cozy little cottage. Everything inside was as she had left it, from the neatly made bed to the cauldron on the stove. Even the many little jars of herbs lining the walls and the dainty mobiles made of small bones she found while strolling through the forest. 

The shadow neared. Keith held up a hand. 

“Before we start, I should like some food. To keep up our energy.” And from his basket he pulled a very long chain of very large, fat sausage links. 

He took water from the rainwater troughs outside and with it he cooked the sausage in his grandmother’s ancestral cauldron. The first cooked link he set discreetly aside, then he seasoned the remainder with a few choice herbs from his grandmother’s shelves. On his own plate, he placed the first link. The others he piled on a great silver serving tray and placed at the table in front of the massive beast. Impatient with the waiting he was already being made to do, the beast swallowed the sausages in great, massive gulps, barely paying attention, his eyes trained on the way that Keith slowly removed his gloves, his belt, his jacket… 

When all the food was gone, Keith stood up and threw open the windows and door. “I would like to be cooled by the breeze when we consummate our contract,” said Keith. “So that we do not overheat in our exertion.”

The beast nodded carelessly. “Yes, yes. As you like.” Then, finally losing his patience, he hauled Keith up bodily and threw him onto his grandmother’s bed, growling, “Now present, Little Red.”

Keith propped himself up on his elbows and grinned. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard that.”

He saw the beast’s confused expression for exactly one second before he heard the thud and squelch of Shiro’s axe embedding itself into the creature’s back. The beast dropped to the ground howling in pain, revealing Shiro standing behind, face twisted in anger and breathing heavily. Keith ran to his husband’s side. 

The beast, however, rose shakily to its knees. “You think I haven’t learned, Woodcutter?” it growled as it reached behind itself to pluck the axe out as if it were a painful but manageable splinter. “It seems Little Red has learned some tricks since he was a child. Perhaps not so ‘Little’ anymore. Are you the new Guardian now, Red? Is this why you lured me to the old Guardian’s home?”

“Guardian?” Keith breathed, reaching out to touch Shiro to reassure himself.

“It is no matter. I will kill you as I killed her. It is useless to try to protect that piddling village. She did so for years, and look how they repaid her. If you give yourself over to me now without fuss, I will be sure to make your death painless. Better you surrender than try to fight as she did. Else you will fail as she did.” He gestured widely to the tiny cottage and its protective walls. “Even  _ her _ powers were no match for me. What chance do  _ you  _ stand?” 

While the beast had its arms extended out and away from its body, Shiro shoved Keith behind himself and threw himself forward to tackle the beast to the ground, but it proved faster and knocked him against the wall with one blow.

“Shiro!” cried Keith. 

Shiro groaned dazedly where he lay on the floor, the scratch of one of the wolf’s claws oozing blood across the bridge of his nose. He tried to get up when he heard Keith’s cry, but stumbled against the wall and slid down, disoriented. Before the beast could grab Shiro and finish the job, Keith turned tail and ran out of the cottage as fast as his legs could carry him. As he had hoped, the beast opted to chase Keith rather than secure his kill. 

“I will not let you get away a second time, Red,” it panted effortfully, hot on Keith’s heels.

Keith said nothing, focusing instead on keeping his breath and pace even, running with purpose out of the woods and to the outskirts of town. His boots kept almost slipping on the forest floor, his red hood pulling tight against his neck, but still he ran on, determined. Not away from the beast, but towards the river.

The river’s waters sparkled and shone in the late afternoon sun. A white beacon on its surface gleamed bright, and around it a group of women bent low to the ground on either side of its banks. The laundresses were at their regular posts, washing a sheet in the river. 

“Mothers! Sisters!” Keith cried as he ran towards them without slowing down.

They looked up at his call and then nodded quickly to each other. Keith was almost to the river, the beast paces behind. With incredible strength, the laundresses pulled all corners of the sheet at once, just as Keith reached the edge of the riverbank. The tension held, and without stopping, Keith ran clear across the gleaming white bridge, over the water, and safely to the other side. Then he whirled around.

The beast was in close pursuit, snarling in hunger and rage, completely focused on catching that little red hood just beyond its grasp. It did not seem to even notice the laundresses, so intent it was on reaching Keith. The beast too, then, ran onto the taut white sheet. And right as it crossed above the deepest part of the river, the laundresses as one released their grip, and the beast was dropped into the water.

For a few tense moments it spluttered and tried to swim, but the heavy rock-laden sausages in its belly weighed it down. One last gasp was heard as it tried to surface, then its shadowy body sank in the river’s cleansing tide and down to the murky depths below, jerking violently as it faded into obscurity. 

Keith fetched Shiro from the cottage and returned to the village, where they and the laundresses were lauded as heroes. The truth was revealed about Keith’s grandmother and the power that had protected their village until the death of the Guardian that had kept the monster in check. Though the dark spirit had seemingly been vanquished, a new coven of witches was created, to lead the town and guard against future threats.

Shiro and Keith went back to living a quiet life in the village, now newly warmed towards the heroic couple. And they lived happily ever after.

THE END.


End file.
